Much of the equipment you see on the slopes or trails is mass produced in some huge factory and made from some sort of modern compound.

But then there is the gear that Mainers make.

Advertisement

"It was important to us to keep the handcrafting traditions going, because a lot of that stuff gets lost after awhile," said Rachel Dubois with Upcountry Snowshoes in Temple.

Dubois and her husband, Russ, handcraft some 200 pairs of old fashioned wooden show shoes every year.

"Anything we can do to keep those older traditions going and give people back some of the nostalgia they may have grown up with," said Russ.

In Bangor, 23-year-old Chris Bagley is out to fill what he believes to be a serious void in the ski market. A one-man shop, Bagley builds a line of custom skis called Volition. Hand-cut out of bamboo, Bagley knows he'll never compete nationally with major ski makers, but locally he knows they will never compete with him. "I'm basically trying to afford someone the opportunity to come talk to the person who built their skis," said Bagley.

In Vassalboro, Alex Murphy took his passion for dog sledding and turned it into a successful profession. He makes the sleds in his back yard.

"Some of the sleds now are high-tech and use aluminum. But there's still a great number of people who still like the traditional style sled," said Murphy.

"All of the sleds I make, I make all of the parts right here. You know I get them all as local as I can," said Murphy.

The Dubois, Bagley and Murphy are all helping to fuel Maine's economy, though they are the first to admit it's never about how much they make on their products; rather, how well their products are made. It's a Maine tradition, they said, and someone has to keep it alive.

"Show some of the younger people also that there are viable products out there that are being generated locally," said Russ Dubois.